AddVancing to the Potatonator

03-18-2012, 08:41 PM

I'm 29, 5'11" and 185 lbs, intermediate ability. I bought a 6'6" AddVance last summer after not surfing that much as I used to within the last 2 years. I found it to be a wave catching machine. It completely made me excited about surfing again. My abilities came back pretty quickly because I was catching so many waves. I'm looking to advance to something with more freedom and duck-dive ability on those bigger days, and still super fun on the small. I live in Virginia Beach, so it's usually mushy and small. But, when it's good, it's good here and in the outer banks, and I found the 6'6" AddVance to be too much board, especially when you are duck-dving all day. My local shop has a 6'0" Potatonator. The volume calculator says a 5'10 would be best. Am I going to notice a big difference between the two? I love the paddling power of my AddVance. It's amazing! I had a 6'1" Flyer before my AddVance and caught no waves. I don't want to make that mistake again, but I also don't want to over shoot on the volume. I appreciate your advice!

FireWire's are the best boards out there, and all my friends are customers. I'm one for life. Thanks!

Two different boards indeed!!!!.The potatonator is a boat designed to be ridden small. That bit of extra foam provided by the 6'0" will definitely help you when it comes to paddle but it might in the way when it gets bigger. Now have you consider the hellfire or spitfire as well? specially for when it gets a bit bigger I think they would be a better suit than the potatonator.
You already have the Addvance for when it's small so you need something for an average day and bigger and on that range the two latter will fit better in my opinion

"a boat"..."a boat"...them's fighting words Iggy.
OOps I forgot you're Canadian...you mean "about" right?
I'll have to snap some shots of the waves I'm happily riding my "about" in. :-)
Working off current board design principles a 5'10" potatonator's going to fit into the pocket of a small wave better than a 6'4" hellfire or a 6'2" dominator.

yeah the truth is the Addvance IS DEFINITELY designed to be ridden longer and higher in volume. The rules that govern the volume calculator don't apply here as much because the point of the Addvance is to give someone a high performing board in the mid-length range.

THe potatonator, on the other hand, is better ridden smaller and closer to that minimum volume because the point of this board is to get a lot of performance in small surf. SO you definitely would be buying the board at a lower volume, and should be planning to surf the board in smaller conditions.

I see Key words there are "Bigger Days" = Hell Fire or Spit. But your gonna need to paddle alot harder learn how to ride that board differently than your ease of use with the Addvance. You could wait for the Activator which should give you a board with more performance closer to the Addvance, you wont have as much to relearn a new shape. I have not ridden the Spit, but Love my HellFire, Dominator and Quadra Five boards ...